1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an encoder for variable-length-encoding image data, an encoding method and a recording medium having an encoding program recorded thereon, a decoder for variable-length-decoding variable-length-encoded data, and a decoding method and a recording medium having a decoding program recorded thereon, which are suitably applied to a decoder and an encoder used for various encoding systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, generally, image data is encoded by an encoder so as to be recorded or distributed and is decoded by a decoder when an image is displayed. Recently, information amount of image data is increased with high accuracy of an image and thus encoded image data (hereinafter, referred to as a bit stream) is decoded at a high speed.
Therefore, technology of separating a bit stream into slices and simultaneously decoding a plurality of slices by the plurality of decoders arranged in parallel is suggested (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-319943).